Asatru Folk Assembly - January 27, 2024


Helreið Brynhildar, a reading


Episode Stats


Length

6 minutes

Words per minute

109.6

Word count

753

Sentence count

40

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

7

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Brynhildar is one of the most famous poems in the Grapispa, but is it actually a creation of the so-called "Sigurd's Song"? And how did it come to be?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hailrace Brynhildar, the hail ride of Brynhild.
00:00:27.320 The Little Hellwraith Brynhildar immediately follows the short Sigurdlae in the Codex Regis,
00:00:35.020 being linked to it by the brief prose note.
00:00:38.820 The heading Brynhild's Ride on Hellway stands just before the first stanza.
00:00:45.780 The entire poem, with the exception of stanza 6, is likewise quoted in the Nornegestatarta.
00:00:55.000 Outside of one stanza, No. 11, which is a fairly obvious interpolation, the poem possesses
00:01:02.360 an extraordinary degree of dramatic unity, and a certain pedantic commentators notwithstanding,
00:01:10.320 it is one of the most vivid and powerful in the whole collection.
00:01:14.240 Nonetheless, it has been extensively argued that parts of it belonged originally to the
00:01:20.020 so-called Sigðrfumal. That it stands in close relation to this poem is evident enough but it
00:01:27.460 is difficult to believe that such a masterpiece of dramatic poetry was ever the result of mere
00:01:34.180 compilation. It seems more reasonable to regard the Hellwraith with the exception of stanza 11
00:01:41.940 and allowing for the loss of two lines from stanza 6 as a complete and carefully constructed unit
00:01:48.660 based undoubtedly on older poems, but nonetheless an artistic creation in itself.
00:01:56.580 The poem is generally dated as late as the 11th century,
00:02:02.000 and the concluding stanza betrays Christian influence almost unmistakably.
00:02:07.760 It shows the confusion of traditions manifest in all the later poems.
00:02:13.120 For example, Brynhild here is not only a Valkyrie, but also a swan maiden.
00:02:20.600 Only three stanzas have any reference to the Guthrun Gunnar part of the story.
00:02:26.380 Otherwise, the poem is concerned solely with the episode of Sigurd's Finding the Sleeping Valkyrie.
00:02:33.000 Later as it is, therefore, it is essentially a Norse creation,
00:02:39.000 involving very few of the details of the German cycle.
00:02:42.320 See introductory note to Grapispa.
00:02:49.940 Hellwraith Brynhildar
00:02:52.320 After the death of Brynhild, there were made two balefires.
00:02:59.260 The one for Sigurd, and that burned first, and on the other was Brynhild burned,
00:03:05.280 and she was on a wagon which was covered with a rich cloth.
00:03:09.520 Thus it is told that Brynhild went in the wagon on Helway, and passed by a house where
00:03:17.060 dwelt a certain giantess.
00:03:20.280 The giantess spake, Thou shalt not further forward fare,
00:03:26.940 my dwelling ribbed with rocks across, more seemly it were at thy weaving to stay, than
00:03:35.460 another's husband here to follow. 0.94
00:03:39.260 What wouldst thou have from Walla and Nghil, Fickle of heart in this my house? 0.95
00:03:46.580 Gold goddess now, if thou wouldst know, Hero's blood from thy hands hast washed. 0.99
00:03:54.860 Brynhild spake, Chide me not, woman, from rocky walls,
00:04:00.740 Though to battle once I was wont to go, Better than thou I shall seem to be,
00:04:07.460 And men us too shall truly know.
00:04:10.920 The giantess spake, Thou wilt'st Brynhild, Boothley's daughter, 0.99
00:04:16.620 For the worst of evils born in the world. 0.99
00:04:20.080 To death thou hast given Gyuki's children, And laid their lofty house full low. 0.98
00:04:28.580 Brynhild spake, Truth from the wagon, here I tell thee, 0.58
00:04:34.000 Heartless one, if know thou wilt, How the heirs of Gyuki gave me to be,
00:04:41.280 Joyless ever, a breaker of oaths. 0.86
00:04:45.660 Hild the Helm'd in Hlim and the Lear, Thy named me of old, all they who knew me.
00:04:54.680 The monarch bold the swan-ropes bore, Of the sisters ate beneath an oak.
00:05:02.180 Twelve winters I was, if know thou wilt, When oaths I yielded, the king so young.
00:05:11.900 Next I let the leader of Goths, Hjalm Gunnar the Old, Go down to hell, and victory brought
00:05:21.000 to Altha's brother, For this was Olen's anger mighty.
00:05:26.940 He beset me with shields in Skaterlund, Red and white their limbs o'erlapped.
00:05:34.800 He bade that my sleep should broken be By him who fear had nowhere found.
00:05:42.100 He let round my hall that southward looked The branches, foe, high-leaping burn.
00:05:49.540 Across it he bade the hero come Who brought me the gold that Fafnir guarded.
00:05:56.920 On Granny Road, the giver of gold, Where my foster father ruled his folk,
00:06:03.200 Best of all he seemed to be The Prince of the Danes when the people met.
00:06:09.980 Happy we went, one bed we had, As he, my brother, born had been.
00:06:16.800 Eight were the nights when neither there, Loving hand on the other laid.
00:06:22.800 Yet Guthrun reproached me, Yuki's daughter, That I in Sigurd's arms had slept.
00:06:30.480 Then did I hear what I would ever had, That they had betrayed me in taking a mate.
00:06:38.820 Ever with grief, and all too long, Are men and women born in the world.
00:06:45.600 And yet we shall live our lives together, Sigurd and I sing down Giantess.